Linking words for students

To make contrasting points

• nevertheless

• in spite of the fact that

• e.g. While killing endangered species is legal, people will not stop hunting them.

• but

• despite the fact that

• even if

• even though

To list points

• Firstly,

• In the first place

• To start with,

• Secondly,

• Thirdly,

• Finally,

To add more points on the topic

• What is more,

• Apart from that/this,

• In addition to that/this,

• Moreover

• Besides,

• …too.

• … not to mention the fact that…

To list advantages/ disadvantages

• One of the greatest advantages of…. is that…

• Another great advantage of… is that…

• A further advantage of … is that…

• The main advantage of… is that…

• The first/ greatest advantage of… is that…

To express personal opinion

• To my mind,

• To my way of thinking,

• I personally believe

• It strikes me that

• I feel very strongly that

• I am included to believe that

• It seems to me that

• As far as I am concerned

To refer to other sources

• With reference to

• Regarding sth

• With regards to…

• As for sth

To conclude

• Finally,

• Lastly,

• Above all,

• All in all,

• Taking everything into account,

• On the whole,

• All things considered,

• In conclusion,

• As was previously stated,

• To sum up,

To express cause

• because of

• owing to

• for this reason,

To express effect

• …, therefore, …

• thus,

• consequently,

• so

• as a consequence,

To state an argument against your opinion

• It is popularly believed that

• People often claim that

• It is often alleged that

• People argue that

• It is fact that

To state other people’s opinion

• Some people argue that

• A lot of people think/ believe

• However there are people who believe that

• Those who oppose Ving…. claim that…

To express balance

• on the one hand

• on the other hand

• whereas

To make general statements

• Generally,

• In general,

• As a general rule,

• On the whole,

To express limit of knowledge

• To the best of my knowledge,

• For all I know